


Wavelengths

by Chisotahn



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Developing Relationship, M/M, Victuuri Week 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-22 23:58:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9630632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chisotahn/pseuds/Chisotahn
Summary: While the first kaiju attack might have stopped Yuuri's 'final' skating season before it could really get started, it didn't separate him and Victor. As the world reshaped itself around the Breach and the fledgling Jaeger Program expanded, people with deep connections to each other became very important indeed...Two years post-canon divergence, Yuuri and Victor are co-pilots of the jaegerAbsolute Zero, and the Drift is slowly bringing Victor closer to the inevitable.





	

Coming out of the Drift was always strange. First came the slow, bizarre realization that you weren’t your jaeger, sixty feet of metal and strength, your own body feeling both weak and impossibly quick, so little effort required to lift a foot or swing a fist. 

Sensing the jaeger went first. The rest fizzled more slowly, even though science was very firm that there shouldn’t be any extra-sensory connection between pilots once the Drift had ended. The pilots knew better. Every one of them had tasted the food on their co-pilot’s tongue, felt the phantom brush of hands on someone else’s body. The entire process had long since stopped being wondrous.

For most people, anyway.

_Drift sequence terminated,_ the AI chimed, and Victor suppressed a sigh as the primary connection between them broke, suddenly putting far too much space between him and Yuuri. He hated this part. It was always such a relief to Drift with Yuuri, to become a satisfying whole, stronger and more capable than either of them were alone. He loved who they were together. 

Yuuri tugged off his helmet as the AI droned on about _docking sequence initiated, stand by;_ his hair was rumpled and his expression unreadable. Victor mentally grabbed for the fading resonance of the Drift, trying to tease free his last impressions of Yuuri’s emotions and coming up with sharp-edged shards. “It wasn’t our fault,” he said, pulling off his own helmet as _Absolute Zero’s_ piloting system disengaged, letting them both go free. 

“Mm.” Yuuri wouldn’t look at him.

“It wasn’t, you can’t blame yourself for a kaiju being an asshole. They’re all assholes,” Victor said, trying vainly to bridge the gap between them with words. He could see the skyscraper shattering as he spoke, an awful cascade of glass and steel, swiped down by a kaiju they should have stopped before it made landfall. 

Should have? _Could_ have. Everyone knew things didn’t always go according to plan. That’s why they evacuated everyone to shelters to begin with. There were no guarantees where kaiju were concerned.

“Nobody died,” Victor tried again, but Yuuri was already walking towards the airlock, his footsteps ringing through the cockpit. Victor pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation, then followed Yuuri. 

The airlock hissed as it began to open, and Victor gently rested one hand on Yuuri’s shoulder, the metal of their suits creating another wall that Victor couldn’t easily pass through. “I’ll handle the debriefing,” he said quietly. “You go take care of yourself.” 

That got a reaction, finally. Yuuri glanced back at him and nodded, a flicker of gratitude in his eyes. Victor tried to give Yuuri’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze, but the metal resisted him. 

The airlock cycled open at last, and Victor quickly stepped out onto the catwalk, gently pushing past Yuuri. “Let him go for now. I’ll answer all your questions,” he said loudly, fixing his gaze on the waiting figures at the other end of the catwalk. “That’s fine, right?” 

“...I suppose,” one of the techs said, giving Yuuri a sidelong glance as he slipped past them without a word. “Psych’s going to want to talk with him later, though.”

“‘Later’ being the operative word,” Victor said, giving the tech his best confident smile. “She’s all yours. I’ll go report to the Marshal now. Don’t worry, I don’t think she took too much damage. Something to the right foot, maybe.” He could still vaguely feel the tingle of a damaged servo or something echoing from _Absolute Zero._

Victor let out a long breath as the techs streamed down the catwalk to start their inspection. He paused for a moment, taking a step back to lay one hand on _Absolute Zero’s_ metal plating. “Good girl,” he murmured, giving the jaeger a gentle pat. 

Then he squared his shoulders and strode towards the other end of the catwalk. Debriefing and evaluation first, because at least he could spare Yuuri that much. Then he could go after his co-pilot. 

……………………

With it being so cold, Victor knew _exactly_ where Yuuri would be. 

The kaiju had come in under cover of a winter storm, which was part of how it had managed to get past them and make landfall. Now, the storm had subsided into gentle flurries, coating the outside of the Shatterdome in softness that seemed completely at odds with the complex’s utilitarian purpose. 

Victor wrapped his scarf more tightly around his face as he picked his way over the cracked asphalt, careful not to slip. The Shatterdome complex was massive, with barracks for pilots and support personnel alike, kaiju research labs, the jaeger maintenance bays, and its own power plant, among other things.

One of the other things was a small pond, tucked away near the complex’s outer perimeter - a pond that often froze over entirely in winter weather. Footsteps in the snow heading towards the pond confirmed Victor’s suspicions, and he matched his own steps with the trail Yuuri had left. As he approached, he could hear the familiar scrape of skates on ice, followed by a thud that made Victor wince and a muffled curse from Yuuri.

“Need a hand?” he called out, coming to a halt at the edge of the frozen pond. Yuuri was sprawled on the ice a few feet away, looking frustrated. 

“I can’t even do _this_ properly,” Yuuri said, his words clipped. 

“It’s not exactly pristine ice,” Victor pointed out, holding his arms out for balance as he shuffled onto the ice. “It’s a pond, not a rink.” He could feel the ripples and bumps even through his shoes, where the ice had frozen and cracked and melted and frozen again, utterly heedless of anyone who might want to skate on it. 

Not that anyone did, other than the two of them. And Victor hadn’t brought his skates this time. 

Yuuri sighed, the warmth of his breath turning to white fog in the air. Victor stretched one hand down to him, and a moment later Yuuri took it, rising to his feet. “Thanks,” Yuuri mumbled, brushing the snow off of his pants. He squinted at the ice and pushed forward again, and Victor could see him relaxing incrementally as he picked up speed. 

“Yuuri-” 

Yuuri curved across the center of the pond, then dug one toepick in and leapt. One rotation, two, and then down, only for one skate to clack over an irregularity in the ice’s surface and send Yuuri sprawling again. “Damnit,” Yuuri hissed, sounding as if he were about to cry. “This isn’t what was supposed to happen!” 

“No. No, it’s not,” Victor agreed, low, sliding carefully over to Yuuri and holding his hands out again to help him up. This time, he kept hold of Yuuri, guiding them both over to a fallen log at the side of the pond. Yuuri followed, silently, letting Victor tug him along. 

He didn’t release Yuuri’s hands until he was satisfied that Yuuri wasn’t going to skate away again. Victor bent down and brushed the new snow off of the log before sitting down, patting the worn bark next to him. Yuuri sighed again and sat down too, looking dully at his skates.

They sat in silence for a few minutes until Yuuri finally spoke. “We were _supposed_ to win the Grand Prix Final... “ He swallowed, hard, and rubbed roughly at his face with his gloved hands. “That’s never going to happen, isn’t it? If we even _survive_ , if all this ever ends... “ 

Victor bowed his head. He knew this particular brand of grief all too well, for all that he’d put his own career on hold before the first kaiju roared out of the sea. It was inevitable to crave what had once been normal. They’d all lost things - people, homes, careers. Competitive ice skating was hardly a priority in the face of the Breach, at least in the Pacific rim countries. “I don’t know,” Victor said. 

Yuuri made a choked sound. “I can’t do this right either.” Victor felt the words resonate, call up fragments of the Drift between them - the skyscraper crumbling, the chasm of anxiety yawing open in Yuuri’s consciousness, something Victor couldn’t hold together for him if they weren’t Drifting. A hail of memories, thick like the winter snow - the first day of the War, the calling up of professional athletes of every stripe as part of the recruitment effort for the fledgling jaeger program. They’d gone for anyone who might have the slightest chance of compatibility, people who were used to working together in fast-paced situations. That was how the two of them had ended up here, no longer coach and skater but co-pilots of _Absolute Zero_. 

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” Yuuri said, his voice cracking at last, and Victor wrapped his arms around him, holding Yuuri tight, wishing he was better at this, craving the too-easy intimacy the Drift bestowed. Words felt sloppy and insufficient, but right now that was all they had. 

Distantly, Victor remembered the line from their training materials: _the Drift is no substitute for careful communication_. “Think about everything that would have been destroyed if we hadn’t been there at all,” he said, finally, leaning his head against Yuuri’s. “We could have lost lives, not just property. But we didn’t. They were safe because of us.” 

“I should stop pretending,” Yuuri said, and Victor felt the tremble of panic darting through him. “I can’t do this. I’m going to get somebody killed.” _Going to get Victor killed_ , and the thought echoed through them both. 

“You are not,” Victor said sharply, shifting to tilt Yuuri’s face up until he could meet Yuuri’s gaze. “If you weren’t suited to this, you wouldn’t be here. You _know_ how careful the evaluations are. You can’t do this alone, but neither can I.” He let the sentence hang in the air between them for a moment, staring into Yuuri’s eyes as if he could convince Yuuri by sheer force of will. “That’s why there’s two of us, Yuuri.” 

Yuuri buried his head against Victor’s shoulder. Victor held on tight, rubbing one hand down Yuuri’s back, soothing. Physical closeness was one thing the Drift didn’t have, especially since it blurred the boundaries between his body and Yuuri’s, between the two of them and their jaeger. After a moment Yuuri wrapped his own arms around Victor, and Victor sighed against Yuuri’s hair, taking comfort from his touch. _That’s why there’s two of us, my Yuuri. So we can fill in the gaps and be **more** together. And we don’t need the Drift for that to be true._

“I… I guess not,” Yuuri managed, and Victor blinked. He hadn’t said that aloud, had he? Yuuri straightened up, his face blotchy with tears, but there was a lopsided smile on his face. “You didn’t, but I heard it anyway.” 

Victor smiled back at him. “You know you can’t lie in the Drift.” 

“No,” Yuuri said, tugging one end of his scarf free so he could wipe his face. “Thank you.”

“I should have brought my skates,” Victor said, wistful. “Then you could see how terrible this ice really is. Even I would fall on my face repeatedly.” 

“Even you? You’re probably just as rusty as I am.”

“Be that as it may, I _am_ the reigning world champion,” Victor said archly.

“They haven’t held competitions in two years, but okay,” Yuuri replied, grinning, and something in Victor eased at the sight. “Bring them next time? I’d like to skate with you, even if we crash into each other.”

“We wouldn't,” Victor said immediately. “Drift compatible, remember? That means we complement each other perfectly. And _that_ means no crashing.” 

Yuuri shook his head. “I’m not sure it works like that.” He stood up again, carefully balancing on his skates. “I’m going to skate a few more laps, okay?” 

Victor nodded. “I’ll wait here. It’s peaceful.” 

Yuuri smiled and skated off, his speed more controlled than in his earlier frustrated attempts; Victor rested his chin in one hand and watched him, silently naming the various poses and elements that Yuuri flowed into as he glided across the ice. _Outside spread eagle. Ina bauer._ Victor could hear music, distantly, and he wasn’t sure if it was Drift residue or just Yuuri being Yuuri. Even now he could still conjure up music with his grace, and _oh,_ Victor loved him.

_I really should tell him before the Drift takes care of that for me,_ Victor thought, certainty ringing through him. _He deserves to hear it from me directly, in a moment just for us. Not from overspill in the middle of a fight._

Yuuri slowed, then skated over to where his bag dangled from a splintered stump, retrieving it before returning to Victor. “What?” he asked.

“Hm?”

“You were just looking at me funny,” Yuuri said, sitting down next to Victor and pulling his boots out of his bag before bending down to untie his skates. 

“Oh, just thinking.” Victor smiled. Maybe tonight, then. There shouldn’t be another disturbance at the Breach for several days. Surely that would be enough time for Yuuri to get used to the idea, if it was even a surprise at all. 

“Victor?”

He looked up to see Yuuri standing in front of him, boots on, bag slung over his back. Yuuri grinned and held one hand out to him. “You coming?”

“Absolutely,” Victor said, taking Yuuri’s hand in his.

**Author's Note:**

> PACIFIC RIM FUSIONS THOUGH!! *casts self into the sea* 
> 
> There are probably more stories to be told in this continuity, if people are interested in reading them. I had to keep this one on the shorter side to have any hope of posting in time for Victuuri Week, but if you'd like to see more, let me know in the comments and I'll do my best to provide! As always, your happiness is my fuel. :)
> 
> Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed. <3 
> 
> (PACIFIC. RIM. FUSIONS. THOUGH. !!!!!)


End file.
